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Babita Phogat became an overnight sensation after a film based on her life was made in Bollywood. The film titled Dangal, starring Aamir Khan in the lead role, went on to earn over Rs 2070 crore worldwide, according to Sacnilk. However, the family that inspired the story received as less as Rs 1 crore for selling their story rights to the makers of the film: Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao, and Siddharth Roy Kapur under Aamir Khan Productions, UTV Motion Pictures, and Walt Disney Pictures India. Babita, in a recent interview, revealed that a request to help them build an academy in their village after the film’s success was also ignored by the makers.
In an interview with News 24, the former wrestler spoke in detail about the making of the 2016 film Dangal and revealed how the makers were inspired to make a film on her. She shared, “A journalist from Chandigarh had written an article on us. After reading it, Nitesh Tiwari’s team approached us. Then the director himself came and spoke to us all. At that point in time, he just told us that he would make a documentary on us. This was around 2010. But, later after writing it, he shared he would like to make a film.”
She added, “Nitesh Tiwari narrated the story to us all first. At that time, they didn’t even know who they would cast for the roles. My entire family was quiet emotional. When I watched the film for the first time, it seemed like I went back into my childhood. I was emotional.”
When asked how much did the makers of the film pay her for selling her story rights, given the film earned a whopping Rs 2070 crore worldwide. Babita said, “I didn’t get a lot of money. I got very less money. You will be surprised to know, after the entire story was written, they were even having a discussion to remove my name from the film altogether. They wanted to change the character’s name in the film.”
“They had written the story, they narrated it to us, and then we went to Aamir Khan’s show Satyamev Jayate. It was after this, Aamir Khan’s team called us and said they want to change the characters names. But then my dad was not okay with it. He said, if you want to make the film, then it is going to be our real names. The fees for the rights was decided much before they wrote the story, which was not even 1% of its total earning”, revealed Babita.
When asked again to reveal the amount she received for the film, Babita said, ‘How much is the 1% of 2000 crore?’ The interviewer replied, ‘Rs 20 crore’. She laughed and asked, ‘And if I ask you the 1% of Rs 20 crore?’ ‘Rs 20 lakh?’, questioned the interviewer. “Well, not so less, but around Rs 1 crore,” she said.
Babita also shared, “After the film’s success, my dad spoke to Aamir’s team and requested them to help us open an academy in Haryana for wrestlers, but that was ignored. It takes about Rs 5-6 crore to open a nice academy.”
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